Elective Course Guide

The Business of Creative Industries

The highly competitive entertainment market demands a professional who is both managerially proficient and artistically savvy. Unfortunately, there exists a significant dichotomy in the skill sets and perspectives of business/finance professionals and creative artists. This dichotomy tends to create problems within entertainment organizations. It is essential that the business professional understand where the artistic mindset is coming from and how to manage that relationship to maximum mutual advantage.

This concentration provides students with an opportunity to gain an enhanced level of knowledge about the commercial side of creative businesses.

Description of fields for which concentration prepares students:
The concentrations listed below seek to expand opportunities for students by including interdisciplinary options in broadcasting, film, telecommunications, the internet, and music. A business foundation is enjoined with courses from programs throughout USC. The program also seeks to clearly identify those students committed to a business career within a creative industry and acknowledge the completion of a curriculum that will enhance their performance in the field.

Description of the academic content and requirements for concentration:
Two foundational courses provide an introduction to various creative industries in which business professionals are hired. The first recommended course assures breadth in training by introducing the student to the creative industries through (a) a review of how these industries are organized and operate and (b) critical discussions of the pressing issues that these industries face. The second recommended course features business development and models for products and services delivered through increasingly pervasive networked digital platforms (NDI), focusing on the convergence of telecommunications, IT, software, content, and media. From this foundation the student steps into a specific area of interest or selects an assortment of courses from those listed below. Four courses constitute a concentration.

Foundation Courses:

GSBA-555: Management and Organization of the Creative Industries

GSBA-556: Business Models for Interactive Digital Media & Services

Industry Specializations:

Telecommunication / Mass Media

CMGT-542: Business Strategies of Communication and Entertainment

CMGT-545: Communication and Global Competition

CMGT-558: The International Entertainment Marketplace

CMGT-570: Economics of the Communication Industries

LAW-657: International Protection of Intellectual Property

LAW-772: Intellectual Property

Interactive Media / Digital Entertainment

CMGT-549: Case Studies in Digital Entertainment

CMGT-558: The International Entertainment Marketplace

ISE-544: Management of Engineering Teams

ISE-585: Strategic Management of Technology

LAW-657: International Protection of Intellectual Property

LAW-772: Intellectual Property

LAW-773: Internet Law

Cinema / Television / Entertainment

Note to MBA students: If you are not officially admitted into the Graduate Certificate in the Business of Entertainment program, the 9-unit limit (below) applies. You may not apply more than 9 units of non-Marshall courses to your MBA without special permission from your program director.

CMGT-558: The International Entertainment Marketplace

Finance
Making Money with Movies (~ CTPR-562)
Entertainment Industry Finance and Economics (~ CTPR-562)
Feature Film Financing and the Studio System (CNTV-523)

The Business of Representation (CTPR-563)

Marketing
Publicity for Cinema and Television (CNTV-561)
Entertainment Marketing in Today's Environment (CNTV-525)

Film/Motion Pictures
Feature Film Financing and the Studio System (CNTV-523)
Seminar in Motion Picture Distribution, Budgeting, and Management (CTPR-560)
Anatomy of a Studio (~CNTV-589)
A Motion Picture Studio and How it Operates (~ CTPR-562)
The Role of the Producer in Motion Pictures and Television (~ CNTV-589)

Television
The World of Television ... How Does it Work? (~ CNTV-589)
Revolution or Evolution: How New Technologies are Changing Television Programming (~CNTV-589)
TV in Revolution: What will the future bring? (~ CNTV-589)
Global Cable and Syndication - Where the Big Dollars Are in TV (~ CNTV-589)
Television Programming (~CNTV-589)
The Television Industry: Networks, Cable and the Internet (CNTV-522)

Producing
The Role of the Producer in Motion Pictures and Television (~ CNTV-589)
The World of the Producer (CNTV-521)

Technology
Revolution or Evolution: How New Technologies are Changing Television Programming (~ CNTV-589)
Digital Technologies and the Entertainment Industry (CNTV-524)
New Technologies in the Entertainment Industry (~ CNTV-589)
The Internet and the Entertainment Industry (~ CNTV-589)

LAW-599 (or alternate number if/when offered): Legal Issues in TV and Film

Sports

Most non-business classes require a D clearance to register. Check the Schedule of Classes for the appropriate phone number or email address and request your D clearances early.

Law:

MBA students are welcome to register for law classes after the JD and LLM students register. If there is space available in a course, graduate students from other USC departments wishing to enroll need to obtain the permission of the instructor via a signature on one of the law school's academic petition forms. In lieu of a signature we have accepted an e-mail from the instructor approving the student's enrollment.

Nine-unit Limit:Students earning the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree are expected to complete their graduate electives within the Marshall School of Business by taking courses that begin with prefixes ACCT, BAEP, BUCO, DSO, FBE, GSBA, IOM, MKT, and MOR. Unless the student is completing a dual degree program, up to nine units of graduate-level course work may be completed at USC outside the Marshall School of Business for elective credit providing the courses chosen are listed in the Marshall EKG. A student may take courses published in the ECG without petitioning, but the total number of ECG-listed non-business units completed without prior permission may not exceed nine (9) units. A student who wishes to have either (a) more than 9 non-Marshall units of (b) a non-Marshall course that is not listed in the ECG applied to the MBA must request permission and receive approval to do so prior to taking the course. A request for an exception must be submitted via petition (Marshall General Petition Form) to the student's MBA program office. Only courses beginning with the Marshall prefixes may be applied to the MBA portion of a dual degree program.